I have loved the fat-fendered cars and trucks for as long as I can remember. A 1940 Chevy businessman's coupe was on Kijiji (Toronto area). I had to take a look as the pictures showed it as solid and straight, and the description made it sound as good as the pictures seemed. Brought it home yesterday. I'm about an hour east of Toronto. It's a pretty solid car, painted once in 1984 then parked in 94 when the owner started collecting parts to restore it and passed away before starting the restoration. Somewhere along the line while on the road he had put a 57 Chevy rear in it as well as a Studebaker OD tranny. Don't ask me anything about that because I don't have a clue.....going to have to see what numbers I can find on it sometime and see exactly what it is and what is used for mounting. It has the knee-action front suspension, which many tend to just rip out and replace with something else. It will be a long-term project which I hope to complete before my daughter gets married. She turned 14 this summer. I'll most certainly gain a lot of knowledge here, and hopefully can provide some worthy information well.
I should have posted a pic, so here it is. Hard to believe it is a Canadian car as the body is very solid and even the floor is quite good.
Congrats....nice find. That thing must have stayed in the garage all its life. You might want to do an intro on yourself also. Tim
Congrats and welcome to the 40/41 Chevy couple club. See my avatar. Its a 41. I have some parts FS but they are for a 41. Paul
Hi. Congrats on the find. Those are great cars. Mine is a 46 Sport Coupe that was partially restored (paint & interior) in 1989 - 90 by the previous - 2nd owner. I am finishing up all the rest of the mechanical stuff now. I have the same front suspension and you can buy rebuilt front shocks but they are beyond expensive. What I am going to do is weld a shock bracket on the lower side of the A arms & a top bracket off the frame and add tube shocks. Doing it this way you leave the existing knee action shocks on as they are part of the overall front suspension & to remove them would require a complete change in the front end assy.
Cool - good starting point - so, it is going to take you 16 years to finish it? - taking into account that you will not let your daughter get married until she is 30 years old
Have you made your daughter aware that the 40 needs to be finished before she gets married. You might get some help in the garage to move the project along. Good looking car.
The Knee Action suspension of 1940 is a pretty good design. It is nothing like the Knee Action suspension from 1934 - 1938. About the only thing that the two designs share is the name. There are lots of rebuild parts available for the 1940 suspension. The 1934 -1938 Knee Action suspension is a pretty crappy design.
I also love 40 chevy coupes. I regret trading mine for a hot rod 'vette a few years back. I dumped the original suspension to install a shop-made crossmember with mustang II and Speedway motors parts....I'd do it again.
Welcome to the HAMB and congrats on the nice find. I have a 40 business coupe myself. They're cool cars but sometimes under appreciated.
'40 Chevy coupes have a nice look to them. I don't know what it is, but I really like the front turn signals on those. K6
Nice find. I agree the later style knee action is a lot better than earlier (I know, have a 37 with the early design). Although it is still a pretty easy upgrade to the Must II based suspension. 57 rearend is a good choice for the rear, or lot of other donor choices as well. Have fun with it and learning exactly what parts you have and then set a plan to get it back on the road.
I have a 47 and if you are creative with a little but of easy fab you can keep the 6 and go with a bolt in MII from Chassis Engineering, you just need to make a front support from 1/4" angle and attach it to the cross member over the rack while adding a spacer.
Well, I have had the car for nearly 2 years. Haven't accomplished much, as life keeps getting in the way. So far I have a CE bolt-in MII cross member installed, with tubular arms as well as the CE rad support. My welding skills are not quite up to par to weld in the front suspension in my opinion, so the bolt on was a safer way to go. The front frame section has been cleaned/painted. Not sure whether to go with the drop spindles or standard, as the do will only leave about 5" clearance. I've got a 67 Camaro rear bolted in place, with new springs etc (CE once again). The spring saddles need to be welded in place yet, but will wait until further along when the driveshaft angle will be determined before welding it up. Just got parts from EMS....tailpan, trunk extension, rear quarters and front lower cowls. Already have rockers for it. Hopefully I will finally decide on spindles so I can the suspension put together so it's at least rolling before snow flies.
I have 2" drop spindles on my 47 seen above. It is pretty low in the front, so low I moved the CE spring adjusters all the way in to raise the car back up a bit. I have the car set on a slight rake and the crossmember I have added below the transmission has 4" ground clearance which is the lowest point and drags on occasion, otherwise plenty of room to turn the wheels with 205's on 15x5's.
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